Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• A dark state of Chern bands: Designing flat bands with higher Chern number

  Mateusz Łącki, Jakub Zakrzewski, Nathan Goldman

  SciPost Phys. 10, 112 (2021) · published 20 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We introduce a scheme by which flat bands with higher Chern number $\vert C\vert>1$ can be designed in ultracold gases through a coherent manipulation of Bloch bands. Inspired by quantum-optics methods, our approach consists in creating a "dark Bloch band" by coupling a set of source bands through resonant processes. Considering a $\Lambda$ system of three bands, the Chern number of the dark band is found to follow a simple sum rule in terms of the Chern numbers of the source bands: $C_D\!=\!C_1+C_2-C_3$. Altogether, our dark-state scheme realizes a nearly flat Bloch band with predictable and tunable Chern number $C_D$. We illustrate our method based on a $\Lambda$ system, formed of the bands of the Harper-Hofstadter model, which leads to a nearly flat Chern band with $C_D\!=\!2$. We explore a realistic sequence to load atoms into the dark Chern band, as well as a probing scheme based on Hall drift measurements. Dark Chern bands offer a practical platform where exotic fractional quantum Hall states could be realized in ultracold gases.

  5 citations

• Testing new physics models with global comparisons to collider measurements: the Contur toolkit

  A. Buckley, J. M. Butterworth, L. Corpe, M. Habedank, D. Huang, D. Yallup, M. Altakach, G. Bassman, I. Lagwankar, J. Rocamonde, H. Saunders, B. Waugh, G. Zilgalvis

  SciPost Phys. Core 4, 013 (2021) · published 20 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Measurements at particle collider experiments, even if primarily aimed at understanding Standard Model processes, can have a high degree of model independence, and implicitly contain information about potential contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model. The Contur package allows users to benefit from the hundreds of measurements preserved in the Rivet library to test new models against the bank of LHC measurements to date. This method has proven to be very effective in several recent publications from the Contur team, but ultimately, for this approach to be successful, the authors believe that the Contur tool needs to be accessible to the wider high energy physics community. As such, this manual accompanies the first user-facing version: Contur v2. It describes the design choices that have been made, as well as detailing pitfalls and common issues to avoid. The authors hope that with the help of this documentation, external groups will be able to run their own Contur studies, for example when proposing a new model, or pitching a new search.

  18 citations

• Symmetry decomposition of negativity of massless free fermions

  Sara Murciano, Riccarda Bonsignori, Pasquale Calabrese

  SciPost Phys. 10, 111 (2021) · published 19 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider the problem of symmetry decomposition of the entanglement negativity in free fermionic systems. Rather than performing the standard partial transpose, we use the partial time-reversal transformation which naturally encodes the fermionic statistics. The negativity admits a resolution in terms of the charge imbalance between the two subsystems. We introduce a normalised version of the imbalance resolved negativity which has the advantage to be an entanglement proxy for each symmetry sector, but may diverge in the limit of pure states for some sectors. Our main focus is then the resolution of the negativity for a free Dirac field at finite temperature and size. We consider both bipartite and tripartite geometries and exploit conformal field theory to derive universal results for the charge imbalance resolved negativity. To this end, we use a geometrical construction in terms of an Aharonov-Bohm-like flux inserted in the Riemann surface defining the entanglement. We interestingly find that the entanglement negativity is always equally distributed among the different imbalance sectors at leading order. Our analytical findings are tested against exact numerical calculations for free fermions on a lattice.

  65 citations

• From deconfined spinons to coherent magnons in an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with long range interactions

  Luhang Yang, Adrian E. Feiguin

  SciPost Phys. 10, 110 (2021) · published 19 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the nature of the excitations of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) Heisenberg chain with staggered long range interactions using the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method and by means of a multi-spinon approximation. The chain undergoes true symmetry breaking and develops long range order, transitioning from a gapless spin liquid to a gapless ordered AFM phase. The spin dynamical structure factor shows that the emergence of N\'eel order can be associated to the formation of bound states of spinons that become coherent magnons. The quasiparticle band leaks out from the two-spinon continuum that is pushed up to higher energies. Our physical picture is also supported by an analysis of the behavior of the excitations in real-time.

  9 citations

• Coexistence of coarsening and mean field relaxation in the long-range Ising chain

  Federico Corberi, Alessandro Iannone, Manoj Kumar, Eugenio Lippiello, Paolo Politi

  SciPost Phys. 10, 109 (2021) · published 18 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We study the kinetics after a low temperature quench of the one-dimensional Ising model with long range interactions between spins at distance $r$ decaying as $r^{-\alpha}$. For $\alpha =0$, i.e. mean field, all spins evolve coherently quickly driving the system towards a magnetised state. In the weak long range regime with $\alpha >1$ there is a coarsening behaviour with competing domains of opposite sign without development of magnetisation. For strong long range, i.e. $0<\alpha <1$, we show that the system shows both features, with probability $P_\alpha (N)$ of having the latter one, with the different limiting behaviours $\lim _{N\to \infty}P_\alpha (N)=0$ (at fixed $\alpha<1$) and $\lim _{\alpha \to 1}P_\alpha (N)=1$ (at fixed finite $N$). {\color{red}We discuss how this behaviour is a manifestation of an underlying dynamical scaling symmetry due to the presence of a single characteristic time $\tau _\alpha (N)\sim N^\alpha$.

  6 citations

• Minimal Zeeman field requirement for a topological transition in superconductors

  Kim Pöyhönen, Daniel Varjas, Michael Wimmer, Anton R. Akhmerov

  SciPost Phys. 10, 108 (2021) · published 18 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Platforms for creating Majorana quasiparticles rely on superconductivity and breaking of time-reversal symmetry. By studying continuous deformations to known trivial states, we find that the relationship between superconducting pairing and time reversal breaking imposes rigorous bounds on the topology of the system. Applying these bounds to $s$-wave systems with a Zeeman field, we conclude that a topological phase transition requires that the Zeeman energy at least locally exceed the superconducting pairing by the energy gap of the full Hamiltonian. Our results are independent of the geometry and dimensionality of the system.

  5 citations

• Relativistic density-functional theory based on effective quantum electrodynamics

  Julien Toulouse

  SciPost Chem. 1, 002 (2021) · published 18 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A relativistic density-functional theory based on a Fock-space effective quantum-electrodynamics (QED) Hamiltonian using the Coulomb or Coulomb-Breit two-particle interaction is developed. This effective QED theory properly includes the effects of vacuum polarization through the creation of electron-positron pairs but does not include explicitly the photon degrees of freedom. It is thus a more tractable alternative to full QED for atomic and molecular calculations. Using the constrained-search formalism, a Kohn-Sham scheme is formulated in a quite similar way to non-relativistic density-functional theory, and some exact properties of the involved density functionals are studied, namely charge-conjugation symmetry and uniform coordinate scaling. The usual no-pair Kohn-Sham scheme is obtained as a well-defined approximation to this relativistic density-functional theory.

  5 citations

• Signatures of a critical point in the many-body localization transition

  Ángel L. Corps, Rafael A. Molina, and Armando Relaño

  SciPost Phys. 10, 107 (2021) · published 17 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Disordered interacting spin chains that undergo a many-body localization transition are characterized by two limiting behaviors where the dynamics are chaotic and integrable. However, the transition region between them is not fully understood yet. We propose here a possible finite-size precursor of a critical point that shows a typical finite-size scaling and distinguishes between two different dynamical phases. The kurtosis excess of the diagonal fluctuations of the full one-dimensional momentum distribution from its microcanonical average is maximum at this singular point in the paradigmatic disordered $J_1$-$J_2$ model. For system sizes accessible to exact diagonalization, both the position and the size of this maximum scale linearly with the system size. Furthermore, we show that this singular point is found at the same disorder strength at which the Thouless and the Heisenberg energies coincide. Below this point, the spectral statistics follow the universal random matrix behavior up to the Thouless energy. Above it, no traces of chaotic behavior remain, and the spectral statistics are well described by a generalized semi-Poissonian model, eventually leading to the integrable Poissonian behavior. We provide, thus, an integrated scenario for the many-body localization transition, conjecturing that the critical point in the thermodynamic limit, if it exists, should be given by this value of disorder strength.

  14 citations

• A physical protocol for observers near the boundary to obtain bulk information in quantum gravity

  Chandramouli Chowdhury, Olga Papadoulaki, and Suvrat Raju

  SciPost Phys. 10, 106 (2021) · published 17 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We consider a set of observers who live near the boundary of global AdS, and are allowed to act only with simple low-energy unitaries and make measurements in a small interval of time. The observers are not allowed to leave the near-boundary region. We describe a physical protocol that nevertheless allows these observers to obtain detailed information about the bulk state. This protocol utilizes the leading gravitational back-reaction of a bulk excitation on the metric, and also relies on the entanglement-structure of the vacuum. For low-energy states, we show how the near-boundary observers can use this protocol to completely identify the bulk state. We explain why the protocol fails completely in theories without gravity, including non-gravitational gauge theories. This provides perturbative evidence for the claim that one of the signatures of holography --- the fact that information about the bulk is also available near the boundary --- is already visible in the low-energy theory of gravity.

  30 citations

• Twisted holography of defect fusions

  Jihwan Oh, Yehao Zhou

  SciPost Phys. 10, 105 (2021) · published 14 May 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the twisted M-theory setting, various types of fusion of M2 and M5 branes induce coproducts between the algebra of operators on M2 branes and the algebra of operators on M5 branes. By doing a perturbative computation in the gravity side, which is captured by the 5d topological holomorphic $U(1)$ Chern-Simons theory, we reproduce the non-perturbative coproducts.

  4 citations